


At The Start Of Time

by heoneymin



Series: (All In) The Golden Afternoon [2]
Category: K-pop, Monsta X (Band)
Genre: ...sort of, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Coming of Age, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Magic, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Plants, Pre-Relationship, Supernatural Elements, Temporary Character Death, Urban Fantasy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-14 03:26:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17500673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heoneymin/pseuds/heoneymin
Summary: Hope is a powerful thing, and adversity would never stop Jooheon from chasing after daydreams.(Jooheon's POV ofOne Summer's Day)





	At The Start Of Time

**Author's Note:**

> This will probably make more sense if you read One Summer's Day first. I mostly wrote this to fill in the gaps in the story aqsdfghkl
> 
> "but Eve that's ur least kudo'd fic why did you write more for it" bc i like this au and i will write for it what i will hmpf. If the last one's mood was set by the song One Summer's Day, this fic's mood is [Gabrielle Aplin's Start of Time](https://youtu.be/XMw0XPVmlKY)

 

 

☆

 

When Jooheon was nine, he dreamt of adventure.

He hadn't expected much when his parents decided to head to his grandfather's for the summer holidays that year. Jooheon loved his grandfather, he truly did, but a month away from everyone and everything he knew wasn't an appealing idea.

That all changed when Jooheon first laid eyes on the town. It was exactly as he imagined it, but also _not_. It was hard to explain. It wasn't that the town was particularly large or busier than he was used to—it wasn't. The atmosphere that oozed from every brick and cobblestone was just miles removed from Jooheon's hometown, in more than a physical sense. The town breathed _oddness_.

Jooheon loved it.

Back home, Jooheon felt like the odd one out. Too loud, too shy, too confrontational—he'd heard it all. But here, here he was just one of many.

And when he heard about one stranger much stranger than any other, well.

Obviously he had to investigate.

 

☆

 

When Jooheon was ten, he decided the best way to learn more about said stranger was to become his friend.

He had already learned last year that the man's name was Min, and that Min wasn't human. Most magical creatures were rather wary of humans, but Min mingled among them like he belonged. Very strange indeed. Maybe what Jooheon had heard was wrong. He wasn't sure—Jooheon had never met any non-human aside from Min.

Thankfully, Min seemed to like him. He answered Jooheon's questions no matter how big or small the topic, and didn't mind that Jooheon spent hours curled up in the armchair by the window whenever it rained outside.

Each time Jooheon ran off towards the small inn, he stayed there longer and longer. His grandfather thought he was playing with the neighborhood kids, and while that sometimes was the truth, he still felt guilty that he had to lie about Min. He knew he couldn't tell his family about his 'investigation', of course. They would think Min was too weird, but not the fun-weird that Jooheon thought he was, the dangerous-weird that protective parents label anyone that comes near.

Maybe in a few years, when Jooheon had gathered more info about the creature, he'd tell them about his adventures in the peculiar town. By then, he would be able to share his conversations and jokes and the things Min spoke about, and how the enthusiasm and joy in his voice felt like a discovery in its own right. Min was bedtime stories turned real, and yet it didn't feel that different from playing pretend with the kids at school.

Only Min was a really tall child that was sometimes a sort-of-adult.

Jooheon thought it would be nice to be friends with him nonetheless. Min didn't seem to have many of those.

Jooheon didn't either.

 

☆

 

By age eleven, he knew quite a lot about Min, if he said so himself. Where he lived and the places he had travelled to, that he liked music and the color red. And that he found his home boring, for some reason. Jooheon didn't fully understand, but Min had looked stone-faced and emotionless while talking about the valley he had come from. It was the first time Jooheon had seen the polite smile the creature usually wore slip away.

Jooheon didn't like it when Min stopped smiling.

He remembered his mother's love of gardening, how she could spend one sunny afternoon after another digging in the dirt and sifting through catalogues of seeds. Jooheon had helped her with their garden more than once. Between that and the fields stretching wide, blending into forest, the view outside his house was quite pretty. If Min could see the same view at his home, Jooheon thought, maybe he wouldn't dislike the valley anymore.

So he had given him some flower seeds, in the hope they could help, and now a tree too. His parents were curious as to why he wanted to bring the sapling along on his trip, but his stubbornness won out in the end. They remained none the wiser.

Min liked his gift, so the trouble had been worth it.

 

☆

 

Twelve-year old Jooheon discovered that he liked spending time with Min more than anyone else.

Maybe it was because his time with the creature was so limited, that made it seem more precious. But that probably wasn't it. Jooheon rarely spent time with a lot of people, and he didn't like them any more for it.

But he liked Min. Min was kind and patient and warm. Sometimes he treated Jooheon like a child—which he was, so he couldn't blame him—but he was never mean about it. Most importantly, he respected Jooheon in a way not many other people did. He gave advice and suggestions but also listened when Jooheon contradicted them. He listened a lot in general. Maybe not as much as he talked, but still. Jooheon talked a lot too when he was with Min.

That year he tried his best to find an extra nice sapling to give to Min and even decorated it with a bow. Min laughed when he saw it.

Jooheon liked the way laughter made Min's eyes light up.

 

☆

 

Year thirteen came and went swift as the change of seasons, the calm before a storm.

Jooheon dreamt of Min, and then of forests painted in luminescent colors cutting through the black of night, mist rolling past like waves. Stars and comets flashed by overhead. He woke up on the edge of a half-remembered conversation. He thought it was a pleasant one, despite the eerie setting.

 

☆

 

The fourteenth summer of Jooheon's life was spent in misery indoors, in the safety of his home. He hated it. His body felt too itchy, too small, too hot. He couldn't sleep because of the coughs that wrecked his body. It was agony. His parents forbade him from going on his yearly trip too, and that just made everything so much worse. He had looked forward to seeing Min again.

He always did.

 

☆

 

His fifteenth summer brought relief and panic in equal measure.

Relief because Min didn't hate him.

Panic because he very well could have, if Jooheon hadn't come to explain his absence, or if Min hadn't returned at all. Jooheon wouldn't even have had the chance to explain if that happened.

Min promised he would wait longer next time, but Jooheon wasn't about to test his luck.

 

☆

 

At sixteen, Jooheon became increasingly aware that he was still the odd one out at home. He did well enough in school and never caused too much trouble, but he couldn't shake the feeling that all his friends felt distant. As if they only ever spoke through a filter, words and intentions hidden behind smoke and mirrors pulled like a veil in front of them. Or maybe it was just Jooheon that was _wrong_.

His friends went out and partied and did all that was expected of them, Jooheon got healthy and then sick again. Hobbies were hard to maintain that year. Music was easy to enjoy though, no matter what condition he was in, and he went to the florist two streets away from school whenever he got the chance. The owners liked him and gave good advice, plant-related or otherwise. There were tables at the back where Jooheon sometimes settled down with his school assignments and music sheets, passing time until he felt ready to go home. He bought stuff for his mom there too, when his allowance allowed it. Bouquets or tulip bulbs. Forget-me-nots and daisies to plant out front.

During summer he told Min about his little getaway place at the flower shop. Min asked why he hadn't tried to get a job there, if he liked it so much. Jooheon wasn't sure. He didn't think it suited him. He most definitely didn't want to be a florist all his life.

Min grinned at him, in that typical way that said Jooheon did something he found particularly endearing.

It didn't have to be permanent, Min pointed out. If Jooheon was there now, he might as well make the most out of it, that was all.

So Jooheon did.

 

☆

 

By seventeen, he got used to the rhythm of the small flower shop. The pay wasn't great but the work was interesting. He got new ideas for gifts and had something to talk about with his classmates, even if specifics bored them to tears.

Clients came to ask for birthday flowers and wedding arrangements and funeral ones too. Some orders were a lot more specific and obscure, and that's how Jooheon learned that maybe there were more magical creatures around than he thought. He had just failed to notice.

That year marked the first time he gifted Min a plant that was a bit out of the ordinary. The creature didn't seem to notice.

Jooheon chuckled. Maybe as far as Min knew, all moonflowers lit up in the dark.

 

☆

 

Life became a lot less fun at eighteen.

Even without the stress of graduating and deciding what he wanted to do afterwards—college, his family insisted—visiting his mom in the hospital got added to his weekly schedule. He was busier than ever. He quit his part-time job at the florist, though the owner continued to give him discounts on the flowers he bought.

That didn't last long either.

When Jooheon returned home at the end of summer they had closed down. Moved to another location, to be exact, but Jooheon didn't care much for the difference.

In the aftermath, his mind wandered to Min, and how his eyes still lit up at the sight of Jooheon's latest gift, how he followed Jooheon through street after street to find something to take home to his mom. Min put up with Jooheon's frantic babbling and rushed explanations, and his somber moods afterwards. Min took him shopping and bought him food and pointed out things he thought Jooheon's mom might like, even though he had never met her.

Jooheon's heart sank. He wished Min could meet her, even if just once.

 

☆

 

Jooheon was nineteen when he finally told his mother about Min. She was hospitalized again, indefinitely this time. Jooheon hated the word. Too vague. Too final.

So he visited. He talked.

About college and people he had met while he still worked at the flower shop. About the new part-time job he picked up—so he didn't have to ask his father for allowance anymore, because the hospital bills were already bad enough, but of course he didn't mention _that_ —and about his friends. And Min, who was a friend-but-not. Jooheon missed him more than his other friends. Or maybe those others weren't friends at all, and only Min was.

He talked about being nine years old and exploring a boring old town, only the town was magical you see? And there was a traveler stranger than any other, one who was kind and whose smiles rivaled the brightness of the sun. The stranger had stories of cities and lakes and valleys, humans and spirits alike, though he was pretty bad at distinguishing the normal from the magical for some reason.

His mom listened, fond and more than a little exasperated at her son's recklessness.

But at the end, she said she would have liked to meet Min too.

 

☆

 

Jooheon hit twenty and felt worse than ever.

Twenty-one, and he found out why. He tried to run away from the truth as long as possible.

 

☆

 

Twenty-two, and he knew this summer was probably the last he would get to spend with Min.

He dreamt of sweltering days at the river's edge, tucked away under a willow tree's shadowy braches. Min laughing at his stories and indulging his clinginess.

Min was music and idle chatter, warm embraces and playful jabs. He was frustrating and blunt but supportive at the same time. Even when he didn't know the exact reason behind Jooheon's shift in mood the year prior, Min had still tried to lift his spirits and encouraged him to break away from the clouds that plagued his mind. It hadn't always worked, but it had made Jooheon _try_. He had really wanted to try his best.

He really wanted to see Min again.

Not just this summer, but the next as well. And the one after that, and after that. It didn't even have to be summer. As long as Min was there, any season would do. There were so many things Jooheon still wanted to know. Had Min ever tried making figures out of snow, or gathered fallen leaves into a pile just to kick them all away in one fell swoop? Would he sing the same songs in spring that he did during those rainy August nights? Small, inconsequential things that he never bothered to ask before.

Jooheon laughed.

Maybe the doctors were wrong.

Maybe it was just his lovesickness eating him from the inside out.

_If only._

 

☆

 

This would be the last time in his life he saw Min.

But in the grand scheme of things, it didn't have to be the last time overall.

 

☆

 

Jooheon had learned a lot of things during his years researching nature and magic alike to find presents for Min. That Jooheon wasn't gifted in those arts from birth was a setback, but not an insurmountable one. Plants especially held their own brand of magic anyway.

He said a silent thank you to his old boss at the flower shop, and the rather unique clientele that had frequented it. The books they had shared with him, most of all. Hopefully it would be enough.

Spell-weaving was just another puzzle to solve, another means to an end. Like stringing notes together into a melody. He chose aspen and birch for trees. Honeysuckle, rosemary, pomegranate, spider lilies and thyme. He bound whatever part of himself to them that he could and hoped at least some of it would stick.

Hope was a powerful thing.

 

☆

 

Life moved on.

 

☆

 

Twenty-three was doctor's visits and hospital-white.

Twenty-four, rose-blood-red and needles and potions.

Twenty-five, a blur. Darkness. Meteors on strings turning to dust behind his eyelids.

 

Twenty-six was a breath of fresh air and apple-sky-green leaves rustling above. Waking up and waiting for the sunlight to return.

Touches like raindrops on parched earth, a cloud-soft embrace. Holding on faster out of fear it might be just as fleeting.

Joy, exuberant and shining.

 _Min_.

 

Twenty-six was forever.

 

 

 

☆☆

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> random fic-related info:  
> (golden) aspen are fascinating trees, but i mostly picked them bc of their longevity. Oh + they're called 'trembling poplar' bc the leaves seem to tremble in the wind & "in Celtic mythology this visual effect was said to be the tree communicating between this world and the next." Birch trees are also a symbol of new beginnings! I picked some random stuff, but (red) spider lilies are also thought to be connected to the world of the dead in Japanese folklore, and pomegranate, well, see Persephone and Hades :') .............ngl i just wrote 'honeysuckle' bc it has 'honey' in the name and 'thyme' as a 'time' pun. 
> 
> Dream symbolism! Comets were used as an omen of sickness/coming death in this fic, because I spent an evening reading up on how ancient cultures saw comets and meteor showers sO. 
> 
> "waiting for the sunlight to return" >> it's Min. Jooheon's sunlight is Min. 
> 
> Next up in this series is the hyungwonho fic btw! And I still have one role to figure out in this AU so if you have a favorite mythological creature that you want Shownu to be, let me know!
> 
>  
> 
> ...Anyway here's my Twitter: [ @heoneymin](https://twitter.com/heoneymin)


End file.
